With the help of the Association of Former Students, Mays Business School is collecting Aggie Ring stories for its 2004 issue of @Mays magazine. Has your ring helped you develop new contacts? Seal a business deal? Land a job?

“Forming relationships with customers is an enduring concern of retailers,” says Dr. David Szymanski, director of the Center. “The business leaders presenting at this conference are all innovative and passionate when it comes to understanding their customers and getting those customers to return time after time.”

This year’s program also includes sessions focusing on hot concepts and designing for customers. To register or for more information, visit www.retailingsummit.org.

Assistant Professor of Marketing Alina Sorescu has been selected as the winner of the 2003 American Marketing Association John A. Howard Doctoral Dissertation Competition. Her dissertation is titled, “Sources and Financial Consequences of Radical Innovation.”

Sorescu, who joined Mays last year, also won the 2003 Academy of Marketing Science Doctoral Dissertation Competition. In addition, an article based on her doctoral dissertation appears in the July issue of the Journal of Marketing.

Marketing doctoral student Julie Guidry was named the winner of the 2003 Fenyo Award for her paper, “Customer-to-Customer Interactions in the Service Environment: A Communications Framework for Understanding C2C Dynamics.” Given by the Academy of Marketing Science at its national conference, the Fenyo Award is presented to the best paper authored by a doctoral student.

Chase Professor of Finance James Kolari’s paper, “Large Bank Efficiency in Europe and the United States: Are There Economic Motivations for Geographic Expansion in Financial Services?” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Business. This research is highlighted in this month’s Mays Business Online.

In addition, Kolari’s research on small business lenders was noted in the U.S. Small Business Association Office of Women’s Business Ownership’s July newsletter. His research report, “Assessing the Profitability and Riskiness of Small Business Lenders in the Banking Industry,” concluded that small business lending normally has a neutral or positive effect on profitability for most banks. Read more about the report at the SBA’s Women’s Center.

The Mays MBA Class of ’03 has established an endowment to provide financial assistance to an incoming MBA student. Members of the class will contribute approximately $75,000 over the next five years to create the fellowship. Given yearly, the fellowship will be awarded to an MBA student based on his/her leadership, work experience, academic achievement, and career aspirations.

Dean Jerry Strawser has pledged matching funds from the Dean’s Development Council to bring the gift to $150,000. A matching gift from the Heep Foundation at Texas A&M will also help to create the $300,000 MBA Class of 2003 and Mays Business School Dean’s Development Council/Heep Endowed Graduate Fellowship.

“As the first MBA class to do this, we hope this is just the foundation and the beginning of a new Aggie tradition of classes giving back to the MBA program,” says Romney Stewart, one of the MBA candidates who helped initiate this project.

This is one more story of how individuals and companies are contributing to the goals of Mays Business School. See how others are joining us in the One Spirit One Vision Campaign.

Tenneco Professor of Business Benito Flores was recently appointed Chair of Fellows Selection Committee at the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI). The information and operations management professor was selected based on his research, teaching and service to the institute. Flores will chair the six-member committee for 2003-2004. Earlier this year, he was appointed Global Development Coordinator for the institute.

San Antonio-based Frost Bank has committed a $100,000 gift from the Myra
Stafford Pryor Charitable Trust to provide state-of-the art presentation technology for Mays’ new facility, the Jerry and Kay Cox Graduate Business Center.

The Cox Graduate Business Center expansion to the Wehner Building helps Mays meet the need for classroom and special-purpose educational facilities. With the growth of Mays’ graduate education programs, the Cox Center also provides additional office space and enables the school to continue enhancing its research and teaching efforts at all levels. The Frost Bank gift will equip the 10 MBA seminar rooms with the most advanced presentation systems available.

“This gift will enable our MBA students to use and experience the latest technologies available in the business world,” comments Dean Jerry Strawser. “It is critical that we have the resources to attract the top young minds to Mays Business School, and resources such as these will allow us to do just that.”